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Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This early black-and-white Santo adventure was one of the first of his films to be released in America - hence his renaming as 'the Saint' in the English-dubbed version. It's a solid action picture, made on an obviously low budget but with some fun ingredients and a smattering of typical Mexican wackiness to prevent it from becoming a bore to watch. Now before you get too excited about the prospect of seeing some good zombie-killing action up on screen, remember this was made before the advent of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The zombies here just look like regular guys with vacant expressions who shuffle around a lot but provide surprisingly agile when it comes to fighting. They're animated via remote control transmitters in their belts too! Whereas later Santo adventures like SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM concentrated on providing an almost Gothic-horror in their approach, despite the presence of zombies this is otherwise an adventure film with science fiction elements. The villain (who also wears a mask, a black one to hide his identity), lives in a futuristic but murky lair which includes a television, which he uses to watch his zombies in action.Otherwise the plot is very basic and predictable, chock full of kidnappings, mystery identities, surprising murders, and the like. The action is what keeps it moving, although the wrestling bouts in the ring (which take up a long twenty minutes of the film's running time, including the never-ending opening wrestling sequence) do drag in parts. It's much more fun when Santo fights the zombies outside of the ring, either when rescuing the children in an orphanage or saving the heroine from being kidnapped. Watch out for the fun bit involving a battle in the ring with a zombie which ends up being short-circuited! Events pick up for the exciting ending which is a little too short and only gives Santo two opponents to face. There are some nice surprises as to the identities of the two villains and a little heartwarming touch at the end in which the detectives speculate on Santo's desire to help out those in need. Sure, the acting and dubbing are below par, but as any fan of Mexican fantasy cinema will know these are only minor detractions to the flow of the movie and come to be expected. Generally this is a pretty watchable yarn, not without its share of stilted moments and scenes which seem to drag, but as a whole its surprisingly effective with some nice creepy music when the zombies attack.

El Santo, more than any other lucha film hero, seemed to encounter the supernatural at nearly every turn. Well, maybe not quite that regularly, but in a film career then spanned three decades, he confronted more than his share of werewolves, aliens, witches and other strange foes.In this early fantasy themed entry (one of four films made in this year), three strangely silent thieves stage a midnight raid on a jewelry shop. During the course of the theft, the night watchman shoots one of the robbers in the forehead, with no apparent effect. The bandits fend off arriving detectives and make their escape -- delivering their loot to a man in a medical tunic and a hood. It seems they are zombies -- revived criminals controlled by this sinister mastermind.Three detectives (Armando Silvestre, Irma Serrano and Jaime Fernandez)are dispatched to investigate the disappearance of a noted professor who had recently returned from a research trip to Haiti. When the man's daughter (Lorena Velazquez, who appeared in a number of lucha films -- including a two-film stint as half of the femme wrestling duo, Las Luchadoras) appeals to the authorities for assistance, Silvestre wisely calls on Santo for help.Santo almost instantly runs afoul of the zombie master. He thwarts the kidnapping of the female of the trio and, later, prevents the zombies from abducting children chosen as experimental subjects, from an orphanage. One particularly bizarre element to the film being that both the madman and Santo can tune each other in on closed circuit television. Santo literally watches as the fiend lays his plans.In an attempt to put an end to this unwanted meddling (is there ever _wanted_ meddling?), the hooded fiend abducts Santo's next ring opponent (co-scripter Fernando Oses) and turns him into a killer zombie. The plan unravels when Santo managed to short circuit his control belt.The daughter and the detectives of course end up in the madman's hands, and it's El Santo to the rescue.Some nice, gloomy photography is the highlight of an otherwise rather basic film. There's a particularly nice sequence at the end, when Santo (who generally just rushes off once he's triumphed) slowly exits up a long and interesting metal staircase set into the madman's cave. There are some clinker shots, though. There's a poorly done use of rear projection in an exterior scene, and there's a downright goofy shot of a partly unmasked Santo goggling in shock at the zombies who had attacked him vanishing in a puff of flame.Still, it's a fun early Santo flick, and it is available dubbed in English for those who're timid about boldly launching into original-language lucha.7 out of 10.